Journal of Black Studies

Currently, there is a limited amount of research on Black attitudes toward the environment. Moreover, possible linkages between race, environmental attitudes, and perceptions about environmental health and justice have not been examined in the United States. This study contributes to this literature by assessing several of these linkages using data obtained from a survey of 247 residents living in or around a highly polluted community of color. It found that public perceptions about environmental health problems and environmental justice were significantly linked to race and public concern for local environmental problems. Blacks are more likely than Whites to believe they are being exposed to poorer environmental conditions, suffer more related health problems, and think that local public agencies and officials have not dealt with environmental problems in their neighborhood in a just, equitable, and effective manner.

Taboos, since the dawn of time, have been used by human societies to regulate behavior and discourse. African writers are aware of these codes that regulate conduct, supposedly in the name of the common good. The article discusses taboo adherence and taboo violation in respect of death, madness, sex, and incest in Europhone African literature and concludes that African writers largely display a certain dynamism in their reaction to taboos.

Using a nationally representative sample, this study looks at the effects of race, gender, and social capital resources on two career measures: (a) earnings and (b) promotions. The author finds that blacks suffer a social capital deficit relative to whites and that men and whites’ career advantages accumulate over time, whereas blacks’ disadvantages accumulate, as well. Thus, race, gender, and social capital resources contribute to unequal career trajectories, and these results generalize to the U.S. population.

Ethnicity, a pedigree of the British imperialist pernicious policy of divide and exploit, has become a virulent scourge that has facilitated a widespread subversion of the democratic ethos in Nigeria. The flagrant display of ethnic chauvinism by the political elites in their bid to usurp power for their selfish ends orchestrates extrajudicial killings in the polity. This article explores the theoretical perspective on ethnicity and highlights the diversities of extrajudicial killings in Nigeria. The nature and the effectiveness of the police in maintaining law and order in Nigeria are discussed. The mutual negative attitudinal dispositions of the public and the police are inhibitive to effective police performance. The article argues that the pervasiveness and ubiquity of ethnicity has profoundly disenabled the realization of the ideal democratic ethos in Nigeria. Panaceas were advanced as the curative for the conflict-ridden and nebulous political atmosphere.

For a variety of reasons, there is little systematic evidence about African American attitudes about interracial marriage. National data are often sparse or not available, and they are often dated. Using a Year 2000 nationally representative poll from The New York Times, we analyze African American approval of interracial marriage. The sample comprised 934 African Americans. Eighty-five percent say they approve of interracial marriage. Education, sex, age, and region are significantly related to approval in the bivariate analyses. Analysis of the amount of contact or friendship African Americans have with Whites appears to be a critical variable affecting attitudes about intergroup marriage; the effects of most of the other variables become nonsignificant when friendship is included in the analysis.

The economic and social decline of American central cities has been well documented, especially as these cities become increasingly socially and economically isolated entities. The flight of industrial jobs from inner cities to suburban areas resulted in increasing poverty and increasing unemployment for inner-city residents. This decline has profoundly affected African Americans who are disproportionately represented among the urban poor. While central cities have been declining, American entrepreneurship has generally been increasing, with a 20% increase between 1992 and 1997. This article examines whether central city residence contributes to or detracts from self-employment. The research question is: What is the effect of central city residence on the likelihood of self-employment for African Americans and Whites?

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), path analytic procedures were performed to test an ecological model of the effects of family- and individual-level characteristics on the academic achievement of African American students. The study results show that several of the family influence variables directly or indirectly affected 12th-grade academic achievement. Furthermore, most of the individual influence variables were directly related to 12th-grade achievement. A surprising finding from this study was the nonsignificant effect of family income on 12th-grade achievement. Overall, the findings support the notion that family- and individual-level characteristics are important predictors of academic success among African American students.

Learning communities are defined as linked courses that encourage integration of the curriculum, help students establish academic and social support networks, and bring the faculty together to collaborate in meaningful ways. The purpose of this article is to describe a learning community based on two linked courses with an African American popular culture theme. The design, function, and process of this learning community are described, and results of focus group evaluations are delineated. In addition, the learning community concept’s application to African American students is considered. Specifically this learning community focused on race, hip-hop, and sport. The high visibility of African American athletes and entertainers has spawned a phenomenon in the African American community, the United States, and the world that merit careful study.